


I Need A Quiet Place

by YvnWilde



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - High School, Barista Finn (Star Wars), Coffee Shops, F/M, Finn & Rey Friendship (Star Wars), Finn and Poe are the only people with braincells, Friends to Lovers, Leia Organa Knows Everything, M/M, Minor Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Miscommunication, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parents Leia Organa and Han Solo, Slow To Update, Star Wars Modern AU, bookstore employee rey, how do you do fellow kids, poe and ben are besties, some drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29303700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YvnWilde/pseuds/YvnWilde
Summary: Rey has an unrequited crush on Ben and everyone but him knows about it. Just the characters being teens and not trying to kill each other.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	1. High School Is A Fever Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first 'published' fic which means you are more than welcome to give me critiques or just general writing advice! Please enjoy the story!

Rey didn’t expect this. None of this. Surely she must be dreaming. There was no way she was witnessing her best friend, THE Ben Solo, ask someone out. She’d been encouraging him to do so, but deep down, she always assumed he would be too scared actually to go through with it since he was a nervous wreck. And yet, there he was holding Billie’s hand romantically!  
Rey couldn’t deny the fact that Billie was a great person; that’s what she hated the most. She didn’t have a reason to hate her other than her unrequited crush on Ben.  
“Oh wow,” she heard the voice behind her say, “I never thought he’d actually do it,” Slowly the tall blonde blocked Rey’s line of sight, forcing her to meet her eyes.  
“Gwen,” Rey started, “did he tell you about this?”  
Gwen Kaplan, also known as ‘Phasma’ by her teammates, was her lab-partner and go-to homecoming date as well as one of the only people who Rey found more intimidating than Ben.  
“He may have mentioned it in passing,” Gwen quietly thought to herself.  
“Oh shit,” Rey pretended to check her phone, “Maz needs me at the store, like, yesterday. Talk to you later!” Gwen could see right through her lie but she needed to get to practice anyway and so she simply waved goodbye to her oblivious friend. Now, she had to wade through a sea of teenagers to get to the locker room in time.  
Rey walked as fast as she possibly could in the crowded hallways to get past Ben without him seeing her. She thought about how obvious her lie was and cringed but it was the best she could do in the heat of the moment. It was stupid and she knew it but that didn’t stop the anger from bubbling up and turning her face all shades of pink. Instead of sitting there and pretending to celebrate Ben’s newfound courage, she decided that going home was the best option for everyone. She turned on her heel and swiveled through the seemingly endless groups of friends towards the B floor exit.  
“Hey, wait up!” She heard someone else calling her but right now, she was more focused on not crying or throwing up...or both. She couldn’t really handle another interaction with a person. Rey kept lightly jogging down the hallway until a firm tug on her bag slowed her down significantly. As she turned to look at the perpetrator, she realized it was just Finn, fresh out of the locker room. A wave of relief washed over her though she might have still been visibly distraught.  
He smiled warmly before asking, “where’s the fire?” Finn threw an arm around Rey’s shoulders and continued towards the exit.  
“Everywhere,” she groaned as the steel doors closed behind them and the sun welcomed them to the bright afternoon.  
“Well, you’re not looking too hot, babe,” he joked, hoping that was enough to prompt an explanation from Rey.  
“I’m not feeling too hot either,” she said, throwing her head back onto her friend's arm.  
“Coffee?” He suggested.  
“Please.”  
The two walked towards the student parking lot and recounted the day’s events; it was a tradition of sorts. They began to do this sometime in the 7th grade when they no longer shared the same classes but still carpooled to each other's houses.  
“-and then Ms. R was all like ‘y’all need to be more responsible about these sorts of things’ and ‘you can’t shift the blame onto other people’” he mocked her strange southern accent.  
“God, she’s such a bitch. No offense to her but like...” Rey looked up at Finn with  
quirked eyebrow.  
“But, like, full offense to her” Finn continued, “there’s literally no reason to waste 30 minutes of class time lecturing us on responsibility when you’re the one who doesn’t have any spare pencils,”  
“Exactly,” she said walking across the pothole-filled street before the crosswalk timer could get to zero.  
“So,” Finn took one long step to get to the sidewalk, “why the sad face?”  
“Ben,” she sighed, not wanting to elaborate until they were in the safety of her car.  
They continued to walk in their comfortable silence, stopping randomly to ask their classmates some clarifying questions about their previous periods. Rey and Finn had known each other long enough to know when the other needed to have a conversation or when they just needed to rant for hours on end. They were practically siblings.  
As they made their way up the stairs leading to the student parking lot, Rey spotted a very familiar dark-haired figure waiting right next to her Volkswagon Beetle.  
“Fuck!” she stopped to look at Finn, catching him off guard, “It’s Ben,”  
Finn, knowing what he was about to witness, walked as slow as he could without looking suspicious. Unfortunately for Rey, Ben spotted her just as she was thinking of hiding behind another student’s car.  
“Rey!” He had spotted her and there was no escaping this. Rey handed Finn her keys in case he wanted to opt-out of witnessing this horribly awkward interaction; he didn’t hesitate to take the keys and awkwardly shuffle into the small car to give the two some privacy.  
“Hey,” Ben said, flashing a smile at the girl, “what’s up?”  
“Nothing much,” she mustered up a strained smile and avoided all eye contact.  
“Uh, that’s nice,” He shuffled awkwardly, “So, Mom’s making lasagna for our movie night tonight. I’ll save you a plate?”  
“Sure! Thanks, Ben” she said, still avoiding eye contact. Rey awkwardly stood there, not knowing how to tell him that she needed to get into her car.  
“Hey Solo,” Finn’s voice shocking both of them, “uhh, no offense, but Rey and I were just about to go get coffee and discuss our project for psych” He had rolled down the window while they had the awkward exchange seeing as neither of them dared to say anything else and he needed his caffeine.  
“Hey Finn,” Ben said out of pure panic. “Uh, I’ll let her go now. I have to get home soon anyway,” They never really interacted outside of their friendship with Rey and they preferred to keep it that way.  
“See you later, solo” he gave him a friendly wave to which the pale teen responded with a strained smile similar to the one he had received just moments ago.  
“Alright then, Solo,” Rey smiled, “Tell Leia I said ‘hi’”  
“Will do,” Ben nodded before walking towards his car.  
“Dear god can you actually die from second-hand embarrassment?” Finn said, sinking into the passenger seat. Rey buried her head in her hands and groaned in response. She quickly opened the door to her car, threw her backpack in the rear seats, and handed Finn her phone so he could ‘DJ’.


	2. Wishing On A Cup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey drive to their favorite coffee shop to talk about the Ben situation.

The coffee shop was only a few minutes away from their school - just on the outskirts of the downtown buildings and so the two friends silently agreed to pick up the conversation only after they'd sat in their booth. Rey was grateful for the lack of conversation since it gave her time to think. She had so many chances to say something to Ben but never did. Was it the fact that she feared rejection? Was it that she couldn’t think of a life without Ben? Did she even like him or was she just clinging to an idea of Ben that would be gone soon? She didn’t have an answer and at this point, it was too late. 

The song playing through the speakers was the only good part of the day; she wasn’t surprised considering Finn was the one person that she usually went to for music recommendations. He was sat in the passenger seat, leaning back as his hand stuck out of the window waving along in the wind while his watch occasionally reflected the sun’s rays at him. Unlike his dear friend, Finn’s life was going pretty well at the moment which wasn’t surprising considering he was always the more logical of the two. Though in the past few months something - or rather someone - managed to scramble his brain; this wasn’t a big issue though…as long as he ignored it and, boy, did he ignore it. 

Finn had dated one person in his 17 years on this planet - Rey. It was an awkward experience, to say the least, but they both realized that their ‘romantic’ feelings were very much platonic and the 3-day relationship was just a result of peer pressure. They were 13 years old at the time but Finn knew. He didn’t know that this was peer pressure but he knew that Rey - or rather girls in general - weren’t his type. 

The last few notes of the song faded out as the car pulled into the small parking lot hidden behind the Cozy Cafe. It was a small, red, one-story building squished between two apartment complexes that were built sometime in the past year. 

“Alrighty then,” Rey said while shifting her car into park, “let’s rock and roll,” she began reaching towards her glove compartment before Finn’s hand blocked the handle.   
“Absolutely not,” he said.   
“Finn,”   
“No.”   
“I can afford to buy coffee,” she joked before removing his hand and opening the small hatch reaching for the brown wallet.   
“Okay, but *I* suggested it, therefore, I should pay for it” Finn argued.   
“Yeah but *I’m* the reason we’re here so I should pay” Rey rebutted.   
“How about,” Finn started, “I pay for the coffee and you can tip?”   
Rey sat and thought it over. Perhaps she could switch the roles?   
“Deal,” she said with a smirk, offering Finn a handshake. He shook her hand, still suspicious of her. 

The two gathered their things and made their way towards the metal door. It was full of new and old, half-torn stickers - some of them they even added themselves. Finn pushed open the door and briefly held it behind him as he cleaned his shoes off on the black mat lying on the floor. Rey appeared next to him following his lead and cleaning off her shoes before continuing onto the wooden floor. The cafe had one long floor that included multiple tables often full of college students (and their laptops) that led to an archway where the ‘main’ part of the cafe was. This included: baristas, a cash register, a display of that day’s pastries, and more tables only this time, half of them were outside. That is where the socializing happened (or at least where it was supposed to happen if you didn’t want to piss off the highly caffeinated college students inside). 

“Finn! Rey! The usual?” asked Rose from behind the counter smiling up at both of them.   
“Yes, please” Rey smiled, armed with her debit card.   
“Rosie!” Finn said, “how are we doing today?”   
“We’re doing,” the girl sighed, “I close today so that's super cool and fun,”  
“Ouch,” Finn said secretly placing his card on the counter, where only Rose could see it, “Well, we’ll probably be here for a while if you want to join us on your break,”   
“Will do,” she entered their order on the iPad as Finn left to claim their seats.   
Rey decided to give Rose a brief rundown since there was no one else waiting in line.   
“So, guess who’s dating who,” she said, raising an eyebrow and giving a painful smile.   
“By the looks of it,” Rose quickly paid with Finn’s card, “it's not you and lover boy,”   
“Even better,” the taller girl said sarcastically, “him and Billie,” 

Rose gasped - not for dramatic effect but because she was genuinely shocked. She was so sure that Rey and Ben felt the same way about each other but this new, and completely unexpected information left her wondering if she imagined their interactions or if she lost her ability to read body language sometime in the last three years. 

“Billie?” Rose asked, furrowing her brows, “as in Billie from debate?”   
“Yup,” Rey popped the ‘p’.   
“Oh wow,”   
“Yeah,” Rey sighed, “anyway, can you add a 15% tip? I might as well drain my account before I die,”  
“You shouldn’t be so negative about this” Rose pretended to charge Rey’s card, “Things are going to be hard but that doesn’t last forever, especially having feelings for your friend” she whispered the last part. The two drinks appeared after a few minutes of waiting and Rey was tasked with picking them up. 

She walked over to Finn who was sitting in their usual spot; a corner booth that hid them away from the rest of the shop.

“Okay, so can we please go over why you can’t just tell him how you feel?” Finn asked.   
“We’ve been over this a million times,” she whined.   
“Yeah, I still don’t understand so make it a million and one, bub,” he said.   
“Because” she looked around, making sure that no one was listening in on their conversation, “because I’m afraid it’ll ruin our friendship”   
“If he’s a good friend, he won’t let this change anything. Solo’s not that type of guy,” Finn started, “he’s, like, super mature. At least for a high school senior,” he laughed awkwardly “he wouldn’t end years of friendship over something as silly as that. N-Not saying that your feelings are silly because they’re not I’m just saying-”   
“I got it, Finn” she took a long sip of her coffee, ruminating over Finn’s small speech. ‘A high school senior,” had her thinking extra hard about the stakes.   
“I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?” Finn asked.   
“Yeah,” Finn heard Rey say. Did she agree with him? “I’ll tell him tonight,”  
Finn nearly choked on his latte. The two years of effort he had put into this entire Ben situation paid off now? In less than a minute? “Wait, seriously?” he asked.   
“Yeah,” Rey avoided eye contact, keeping her eyes on the cars driving by outside.   
“What made you change your mind so,” Finn stopped to think of the right word, “so suddenly,” was all he came up with in his state of shock and disbelief.   
“He’s going to college anyway so I might as well take a chance while I still can”  
“So, tonight?” Finn was unnecessarily happy about the entire thing which made Rey even more nervous. What if Ben never spoke to her again? What did Finn expect out of this anyway? She didn’t know. All she knew was that this was happening...  
“Tonight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! sorry this took so long to update - I had a bunch of homework assigned on top of the editing that had to be done to this chapter before I would let it see the light of day. Anyway, I'm hoping to update this story more frequently but I'll probably have to actually schedule in time for writing and editing if I want any possibility of that happening. Don't worry though! I already have two more chapters done that just need some editing.  
> I wanted to expand a little more on Finn's character in this chapter since I also want a good portion of the story to focus on him and a certain someone's relationship. I may be a bit biased though since he's my favorite character from the sequel trilogy.   
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this week's chapter!


End file.
